Russia: Bullying the Soviet Republics Back Together Again? | Fall 2025 Conference

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The Council of American Ambassadors invites you to listen to the third panel from our fall 2025 conference. The topic of the conference was "Bullies without Borders: China, Iran, and Russia."

Our third panel, entitled "Russia: Bullying the Soviet Republics Back Together Again?," rounded out our panel programming. Council member Ambassador Jim Rosapepe, former U.S. Ambassador to Romania (1998-2001), guided the discussion to touch on what exactly is the U.S. strategy against Russia and how is it going?

Dr. Ivana Stradner weighed in, "[Putin] is on a revenge path. He wants to rewrite the global order. Whether he's going to succeed or not is up for a debate."

Tune in to hear more from this engaging discussion!

About the Panelists:

Moderator: U.S. Ambassador (ret.) Jim Rosapepe  

Ambassador Jim Rosapepe was U.S. Ambassador to Romania from 1998-2001, the years of NATO’s successful war in Kosovo to prevent “ethnic cleansing,” its first military action since its founding. Prior to his service as ambassador, he served as Investment Committee Chair of the Albanian American Enterprise Fund, founding Chair of the Maryland/Leningrad Oblast Sister State Committee, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, and Chair and CEO of the Patuxent Capital Group. 

Since returning from Romania, he has served on boards of a variety of public and private investment funds focused on Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and China, as well as on the University System of Maryland Board of Regents. 

With his wife, journalist Sheilah Kast, he is co-author of Dracula is Dead: Travels in Post-communist Romania (2014). In 2020, he was Chair of the National Leadership Committee of Italian Americans for Biden/Harris. He currently serves on the boards of the Council of American Ambassadors, Alianta (the NGO of Americans supporting the US/Romanian Strategic Partnership), the Italian American Policy Project, College Park Academy (a college prep public charter school), and other non-profits. In Maryland, he is Vice Chair of the Senate Budget and Tax Committee. 

Ian Brzezinski 

Ian Brzezinski is a resident senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a member of the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Advisors Group. With over 20 years of experience in U.S. national security, he has held senior roles in the Department of Defense and on Capitol Hill. He currently leads the Brzezinski Group, advising government and commercial clients on strategic and defense matters. From 2001 to 2005, Brzezinski served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO policy. He played a key role in NATO expansion, the restructuring of its command, the launch of the NATO Response Force, and coordination of allied operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans. His earlier work in the Senate included shaping U.S. policy toward Europe, Russia, and Central Asia and coordinating legislative-executive dialogue on NATO enlargement and modernization. 

Brzezinski’s career also includes service on the Pentagon’s policy planning staff, work as a national security consultant, and early experience at the National Security Council. He has advised the Ukrainian government and worked extensively with U.S. combatant commands during his time at Booz Allen Hamilton. 

His contributions have been recognized with several international and U.S. honors, including the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service and high state awards from Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, and Poland. 

Donald Jensen, Ph.D. 

Dr. Donald N. Jensen is an expert on Russian foreign and security policy, currently teaching at Johns Hopkins University’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. From 2020 to 2023, he directed the Center for Russia and Europe at the United States Institute of Peace. A former U.S. diplomat, Jensen played a key role in arms control efforts, including technical support for START, INF, and SDI negotiations, and was among the first U.S. inspectors to verify Soviet missile dismantlement under the INF Treaty in 1988. He also served at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow during the 1991 August Coup. 

Jensen spent over a decade at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, leading broadcast expansion into Iran and Afghanistan and modernizing operations with new media technologies. He was a Visiting Scholar at the NATO Defense College in 2016, focusing on Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine. He frequently publishes and comments on post-Soviet politics, with emphasis on Russia’s negotiation tactics and national security. 

Beyond his policy work, Jensen is a distinguished baseball historian, specializing in the Deadball Era and 19th-century baseball. He has authored multiple publications, lectures regularly at the Baseball Hall of Fame, and serves as editor-in-chief of The Inside Game. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard and is fluent in Russian and Italian. 

Ivana Stradner, Ph.D. 

Dr. Ivana Stradner is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Barish Center for Media Integrity, where she focuses on Russia’s security strategies and military doctrines, particularly in the realm of information operations and strategic communication. Her work bridges the psychological and technical dimensions of Russian information security and includes analysis of Russian influence within international organizations. Currently, she is examining the U.N. Cybercrime Treaty and broader UN efforts to regulate information security. 

Dr. Stradner has provided expert testimony before the European Parliament and regularly briefs government officials on topics related to Russian disinformation and cybersecurity. She also contributes as a special correspondent for KyivPost, offering on-the-ground insights into Russian hybrid warfare and information tactics. 

Before joining FDD, she was a visiting scholar at Harvard University and a Jeane Kirkpatrick fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. She has taught law and international security at institutions including the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.  

Dr. Stradner’s commentary and analysis have appeared in the Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Politico, The Telegraph, National Review, and other major outlets. She holds a Doctor of Juridical Science (JSD) and a Master of Laws from UC Berkeley.